Carter primed to tackle Pumas

Star flyhalf Dan Carter is set to return for the All Blacks after coming through Wednesday’s training session unscathed.

Star flyhalf Dan Carter is set to return for the All Blacks after coming through Wednesday’s training session unscathed.

Carter ran freely and practiced his goal-kicking without discomfort, prompting All Black coach Steve Hansen to give his first-choice pivot an early breather and leading him to suggest that Carter would more than likely return to the playing field against the Pumas in Saturday’s Rugby Championship showdown.

"He's training like he's ready to play, so as long as he continues to progress he'll be playing," Hansen told reporters.

"He came through today's session pretty good. We pulled him out after about 45 minutes and he wasn't overly happy about that, he wanted to do a bit more so that was a good sign.

"He did everything at pace, he was fine, he didn't feel it [the injured calf]," Hansen said.

"I'm pretty confident, probably about 97 percent. He's got through two training sessions. He didn't do everything and we wouldn't expect him to."